Search Engine Optimization News Blog

In March AOL doubled their audience with the acquisition of social network Bebo. In March AOL was also the top ad network, beating out Yahoo and Google for the place at the top of the heap.

In April Verizon chose AOL’s Platform-A for its online and mobile advertising inventory. AOL has become quite the competitor with its wide range of divisions including Quigo, Advertising.com, Tacoda, Third Screen Media and AdTech.

So much a contender, in fact that the three way courtship between Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL may be even more interesting than the tangled web woven with Google.

Time Warner is reputedly trying to sell AOL to Microsoft, and apparently there is some pressure to have it done by the August first shareholders’ meeting at Yahoo.

So is AOL the consolation prize? And what is Microsoft planning to do about their search issues? The whole idea behind the Yahoo deal was to acquire strong search technology - can they start again with AOL’s powerful ad base and build their own?

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, gave an interview last week that was published by the Washington Post. He touched on a variety of factors; the attempt to merge with Yahoo, the constant chase after Google - but the focal point of his words was the future.

Not just the future of advertising, or the future of the media. Not even merely the future of search itself, but the concept that in 10 years, in his opinion, we are going to see paper newspapers, magazines, etc. disappear - to be replaced by an completely electronic delivery system.

Ballmer believes that we are on the brink of a complete merging between search, advertising, media and communications that will coalesce as the different elements become more and more entwined.

Steve, with characteristic gestures and hand motions, explained his concept of how the world of consumerism will change, as “advertising, commerce, community and content all blend.”

The CEO went on to define advertising as the ‘grease’ that runs the engine, and commented that even the line between advertising and content is becoming blurred, as advertising is a form of content in and of itself. Much content, in turn, is loosely used as advertising.

“In this world, ” Ballmer continued, “there are these incredible pieces of software that know all about the publishers who want to sell ads, the advertisers who want to buy ads, and the users who want to consume the content and advertising .”

He put forth the idea that as the engines collect more and more data about behavioral patterns of users, advertisers and publishers, they will get “smarter and smarter about delivering the right ad at the right time.”

Steve’s concept is sweeping, really; he envisions a world where he can aim his remote at the screen while watching a golf tournament, click on Tiger Woods’ golf ball, and be greeted with a pop up advertisement offering Nike Elite golf balls for sale.

The media provides the publisher with the venue to sell ads to the advertisers, who promote the products to the consumer, who feeds on the advertising, the content, the product and the media. And the cycle continues, interwoven to the point where each component is almost indistinguishable from the next.

Ballmer ties it all together with the idea of search, interconnected with the ad platform that supports not only search itself but all content. Search is the future, supported by advertising, aided by content and powered by the ability to provide the user with information, products and communication.

“We are number three,” he said. “We probably have, really, the long term best prospect of putting competition to Google, who is clearly number one.” Ballmer went on to touch on the whole deal with Yahoo, though he painted it more as a friendly “lets get together and do this” proposal than the hostile takeover many perceived it to be.

Microsoft has launched so many new plans and applications over the last month that most people would view them as unconcerned about the failed deal with Yahoo, but there is no doubt that they are gearing up for a strong push to overtake Google as king of search land.

Wait, wasn’t that Yahoo’s piece of the pie?

Maybe it was, two years ago - but this is 2008, and Microsoft is becoming a force to be reckoned with. The failed deal with Yahoo last month seems not to have fazed Microsoft at all, and Live Search is gradually creeping up to encroach on the bigger company’s territory.

Microsoft is taking the opening to promote their Silverlight cross browser and Snapfish photo shop applications by custom designing a toolbar for HP.

Watch for this to roll out early next year, as new HPs in The US and Canada will have the toolbar imbedded to entice consumers to use the Redmond, Washington company’s engine and other applications.

Microsoft is going for a bigger piece of the pie, and the deal with HP is rumored to be only the first of many new strategies to come.

For those of you lucky enough to make the trip, the SMX Advanced Conference will be held June 3rd and 4th at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle.

An evening reception on June 2nd is planned at the Olympic Sculpture Park to kick of the event, then the expo hall will open at 10:00 the next morning after a 45 minute keynote speech by Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson.

The schedule for June 3rd is jam packed with everything from link building to search marketing and conversion optimization. It culminates in another 45 presentation, this one delivered by the longtime Googler and spam fighter Matt Cutts.

SMX After Dark will allow mingling and networking to continue at the Odyssey Maritime Museum until 9:00 PM.

June 4th will be ‘developer day’, with seminars on organic and paid search continuing throughout the day and a heavy emphasis on website evaluation and review.

For those unable to make the trip, news on the event will be available here next week!

SEO will have to take a huge stride to keep up as the rapid trend toward mobility continues to grow. The iPhone, the Treo, the Blackberry - as capacity grows and prices drop more and more consumers are using their mobile technology to access the web.

At first, the high per minute rates charged by most service providers dampened the impulse to use mobile options for online search, and advertisers did not consider it a high value market. With the advent of Apple’s iPhone flat rate plan all that started to change. Apple holds only a very small fraction of the market share compared to other providers, yet its mobile search queries surged in late 2007 to eclipse all smart phone platforms.

This sparked research into the advertising and marketing possibilities. According to one survey, over half of all US adults would be more than happy to accept advertising if it means unlimited access, so subsidizing flat rate plans by advertisers may be in the very near future. Today, Microsoft announced that advertising for Live Search Mobile is in private beta test, pending expansion.

What does this mean to the average website owner? It will become necessary to take into account the small screen size and adjust your ads accordingly. You might want your headers that appear on the SERPS to be short and sweet. The biggest change, if you have an actual location, might be in foot traffic, so if you haven’t geographically targeted your keywords, now might be the time!

As mobility continues to advance, many believe that this emerging market could be one of the most lucrative yet. Mobile search adspend is expected to reach $2 billion by 2013.